Of Anime, Poetry and Falling in Love: Mack and Rose

Disclaimer: I'll just pretend you didn't ask that.

Challenge: Lost

Timeframe: Somewhere after Face to Face. Has nothing to do with the episode, but there are references.

Summary: If being lost was this good, he didn't want to be found.

Mack examined the copy of the map. "Yep," he announced cheerfully a moment later, "We are definitely lost, Rose. Definitely lost. We missed a turn somewhere." The red ranger folded his map up again and put it back in his pocket.

"Well why don't we go retrace our steps? We can't just sit around all night, Mack. There has to be some way to find the right path."

Mack shook his head. "It's almost dark. I am not about to let you go wandering around the jungle at night. There's no way it's going to happen." Rose heaved a sigh and plopped down onto the ground. He joined her a moment later.

"How are we supposed to, oh, I don't know, live?" asked Rose after thinking for a moment. "We don't have any supplies. They're all on the SHARC." To her annoyance, Mack merely chuckled.

"It's not like we're stuck here forever. The others will realize we're missing and head back to base and find us. We stay put until they come. Trust me, Rose, I know the drill. I've been lost before, remember?"

"Oh yeah, when I thought I was never going to see you again," Rose shot back. "I was worried about you then, Mack. I really was."

"You worry about me?" he asked softly. Rose nodded and Mack smiled slightly to himself. "Rose, listen. I know you're freaked out here but it'll be a lot easier if you just work with me. It could be a couple of days before they get home, locate us and then get all the way out here again, and it'll be smoother if you just stop overanalyzing."

"All right. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he replied. "We should try to start a fire. Basic survival step number one."

"We're in a rainforest Mack. Doesn't that imply that any wood we would find would be wet?"

"Who said anything about wood?"

Rose heaved an enormous sigh. "If, by some miracle or other, you carry flint around with you or something, then knock yourself out with that fire, Mack. I think I'll just try to figure a way out of this mess."

"To each her own," Mack said gallantly. He proceeded to successfully light a fire with a little bunch of twigs and a lighter. "I win."

Rose just shook her head. "So, any idea of how we're supposed to eat, O Great Survival Expert?"

"I have a pack of cookies in my pocket," Mack said, as if it were obvious he went everywhere with sugary snacks. "It's not much, granted, but it's better than starving."

Rose cracked a tiny smile. "For once I think you might be onto something, Mack." The pink ranger scooted a little closer to him and the fire, admiring his handiwork. "I really am sorry about snapping at you, Mack. Like you said, I overanalyze everything. It's probably why I don't have a lot of friends. Everyone thinks I'm going to bite their heads off."

Mack offered her a miniature chocolate chip cookie. "I never really had friends growing up, either. My dad put me in public school, you see, so none of the other kids had limos or mansions. I looked like a snob, I guess. That's why I read so much."

"We're more alike than I thought," Rose said. "I'll be nice, I promise. After all, we have to get along if we're going to live to tell the tale." Mack nodded and took a bite of his own cookie.

"If you give me your jacket I can make up a tent. It does rain here."

Rose popped the last bit of her cookie into her mouth and removed her uniform jacket. She tried not to stare at the black T-shirt hugging itself to Mack's body as he set about constructing a tent with the red and pink trimmed jackets.

"There," he said proudly. "It's nothing spectacular, but it'll do."

"Only the fire's going to go out when it starts raining."

Mack shrugged. "We'll deal with that later." Suddenly he yawned loudly, stretching his arms over his head. "Would you mind taking first watch? I'm so tired." Rose agreed, and watched with a faint smile as he lay down under their little tent and closed his eyes.

She woke him up three hours later. "Mack, the rain put out the fire and I'm all wet and it's freezing…"

"Come here," he murmured sleepily, holding out his arms. Rose burrowed into them eagerly, grateful for his warmth. "Better?" Rose nodded, her eyelids drooping. She shut them and fell asleep almost instantly. "If being lost is this good," he whispered, "I don't want to be found."

He could have sworn he saw Rose smile in her sleep.